MONICA PUIG MARCHáN (born September 27, 1993) is a Puerto Rican
tennis player and the reigning Olympic champion. She is also a Central
American and Caribbean champion and Pan American silver medalist.

Having turned professional in 2010, Puig has won one WTA singles
title and six ITF singles titles. On 26 September 2016, she reached
her career-high singles ranking of world No. 27. On 25 May 2015, she
peaked at world No. 210 in the doubles rankings.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics , Puig created history by becoming the first
Puerto Rican athlete to win the gold medal and the ninth overall
medalist for that delegation. With the feat, she also became the first
Latin American champion in the women's singles discipline, and is the
only unseeded female player to win the gold medal since the
reintroduction of tennis in 1988.

Monica PuigMonica Puig Marchán was born 27 September 1993 in Hato Rey , Puerto
Rico to a Cuban American father, José Puig, and a Puerto Rican
mother, Astrid Marchán. Puig stated her grandparents are Catalan .
She has a brother named Ricardo "Ricky" Puig.

TENNIS CAREER

JUNIOR CAREER

In 2007, she entered her first tournament at the Prince Cup, but
withdrew from the qualifying draw.

In 2008, she started the season with a surprise run to the final of
the Costa Rica Bowl (Grade 3) as a qualifier losing in straight sets
to
Eugenie BouchardEugenie Bouchard . She continued her good form, winning two out of
three tournaments. Puig continued good results in small Grade-3 and 4
tournaments. In her first Grade-1 tournament in Lexington , she
defeated Charlotte Calhoun before going out to
Lauren Embree . She
continued to participate in bigger tournaments, though not with as
much success as she had in the smaller ones.

Puig had her breakthrough season in 2009; she started doing much
better in the bigger tournaments. She reached her first Grade-1 final
in
CasablancaCasablanca , losing to Mai Grage of Denmark. She continued playing
consistently, highlights of the latter months of the year included a
semifinal appearance at a Grade B1 tournament in Tulsa, losing to
Bouchard in three sets. In her next tournament, she won the doubles
title.

In 2010, she continued her successes at a higher level. Puig started
the year reaching the final of the 32nd International Casablanca
Junior Cup (Grade A), falling easily to
Sachie Ishizu of Japan. She
then reached another final a week later at the Coffee Bowl (Grade 1)
losing to
An-Sophie MestachAn-Sophie Mestach of Belgium in straights. Puig followed
that up with a semifinal appearance at a Grade-1 tournament in
BarranquillaBarranquilla . Consistent results followed, before a huge Grade A
title at the 27th Copa Gerdau, defeating
Jessica PegulaJessica Pegula in the final.
After a semifinal appearance at another Grade-A calibre tournament,
she fell in the quarterfinals of the
French OpenFrench Open . After that, she
failed to advance past the quarterfinals of any of her tournaments
until the 2010 US Open – girls\' singles , where she lost to Yulia
Putintseva . Puig finished the season with a flourish, falling in the
quarters of
OsakaOsaka (Grade A), the final of Mérida (Grade 1) and the
semis of
Key BiscayneKey Biscayne (Grade A), both to
Lauren DavisLauren Davis .

In this same year, she also won the gold medal at the Central
American and Caribbean Games in
VeracruzVeracruz ,
MexicoMexico representing Puerto
Rico .

2015: LESSER RESULTS, STILL IN TOP 100

Puig's best performances in 2015 was the semifinals in Pattaya . She
also made the quarterfinals in Acapulco , after defeating Sara Errani
, world No. 12 at the moment. Another important victory in Guangzhou
against world No. 17
Andrea PetkovicAndrea Petkovic . Puig ended the season ranked
world No. 92.

Despite concluding her 2016 season with a career best year-end
ranking of 32, Puig was unable to replicate her success throughout
2017 and fell out of the top 50 on 12 June. By losing in three sets
to
Mirjana Lucic-BaroniMirjana Lucic-Baroni in the first round of the US Open , Puig
concluded her 2017 season without advancing past the second round of
any Grand Slam or WTA Premier Mandatory tournament.